This is not a battle of left vs. right. It is a battle between democracy and autocracy.
The Secret to the GOP’s Assault on Your Rights by Robert Reich | July 8, 2022 – 6:34am | permalink
Category: Informed Comment
The link is tightening between America’s move toward theocracy and its slide toward autocracy.
Source: The Republican Party: God, Guns, Forced Birth, and Strongmen | The Smirking Chimp
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a fierce debate over realism as an approach to thinking about foreign policy. Historian Daniel Bessner tells Jacobin what socialists can learn from realism and what they should reject.
Source: How Should the Left Think About Realism in Foreign Policy?
When Australians are feeling good about themselves the LNP,Dutton, and Murdoch want it stopped and stopped immediately. However, they looks so bad doing it.
The new PM’s visit to war-torn Ukraine was equated with ScoMo taking off to Hawaii, while Peter Dutton continued to dominate media coverage, this week. Managing editor Michelle Pini takes a look at the latest anti-Albo campaign.
That’s rich. Bezos of all people should know that a major reason prices are rising is hugely profitable corporations like his Amazon have been using inflation as cover to raise price even further.
Source: Bezos’s Inflation Idiocy | The Smirking ChimpInflation, Corporate driven,
America is in trouble. But that’s not because too many foreigners are crossing our borders, or we’re losing our whiteness or our dominant religion, or we’re not standing for the national anthem or celebrating our history. We’re not in trouble because of voter fraud. We’re in trouble because we are losing the true understanding of what patriotism requires from all of us.
Source: On This July 4: The True Meaning of Patriotism | The Smirking Chimp
Australia’s net-zero commitment has always just been a matter of us doing our part of the global effort.. But that global effort is now in tatters.
On Thursday last week – June 30 – two documents were published here and in Washington DC that together present Australia with a horrible, very expensive problem.
They were the Australian Energy Market Operator’s new Integrated System Plan and the US Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia versus the Environmental Protection Agency.
In essence the two documents tell us that Australia will fork out hundreds of billions of dollars to transition the electricity system to near-100 per cent renewables to no avail, and we’ll end up paying even more to deal with the effects of global warming.
With slightly more than one per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, Australia’s commitment to have net-zero emissions by 2050 has always just been a matter of us doing our part of the global effort – as we should.
But that global effort is in tatters because the Supreme Court has taken America out of the game. Keeping global warming to less than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures, and therefore something less than catastrophic, now looks impossible.
That means it is now more important for the Albanese government to develop strategies and allocate funds to deal with impact of climate change than it is to cut emissions, as promised, by 43 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050, as important as those targets still are politically and morally.
It’s now likely that both costs will have to be paid.
Source: Alan Kohler: Australia’s expensive climate change double whammy
Callum Foote examines the dodgy and contradictory reporting frameworks in Australia around carbon offsets.
Out for the count: ‘Carbon Offsets’ are not actually carbon offsets – Michael West
Along with the Bible he’s argued to be the most read in the world
In 1845, Karl Marx declared: “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it”.
Change it he did.
Political movements representing masses of new industrial workers, many inspired by his thought, reshaped the world in the 19th and 20th centuries through revolution and reform. His work influenced unions, labour parties and social democratic parties, and helped spark revolution via communist parties in Europe and beyond.
Around the world, “Marxist” governments were formed, who claimed to be committed to his principles, and who upheld dogmatic versions of his thought as part of their official doctrine.
Marx’s thought was groundbreaking. It came to stimulate arguments in every major language, in philosophy, history, politics and economics. It even helped to found the discipline of sociology.
Although his influence in the social sciences and humanities is not what it once was, his work continues to help theorists make sense of the complex social structures that shape our lives.
1 Apparently, after being soundly defeated at the election, the Coalition still thinks there is mileage in continuing to oppose climate change while supporting coal. This sort of talk takes us back to the Neanderthal age. It’s flat Earth stuff.
A final implication of today’s ruling is that the filibuster has to go. If the Supreme Court is going to require that Congress be more active and specific in protecting the environment or anything else, such a goal is implausible when 60 senators are necessary to enact it. Senate Democrats now have it in their power to abolish the filibuster. Today’s case should convince them they must.
Source: The Beginning of the End of Regulation | The Smirking Chimp
Frydenberg and Morrison said they fixed this shit and put us in the best place possible ahead of the rest of the world. No word has been heard from either of them since.
The panel believes Australia will avoid a recession the year ahead, but is much less certain about the United States. It expects real wages to go backward and economic growth to sink.
The Progressive Era, as it was called, welled up because millions of Americans saw that wealth and power concentrated at the top was undermining American democracy and stacking the economic deck. Millions of Americans overcame their cynicism and began to mobilize.
The central question is whether we can do so again. To answer that, though, we need to examine what has happened to the Democratic Party over the last four decades — and why it has so far failed to mobilize a new progressivism. That’s to come.
Source: Trumpism and the Myth of the “Free Market” | The Smirking Chimp
Founder and publisher Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini analyse the widening disconnect between Australia’s concentrated legacy media and its audience.
Australian journalists are at war with their audience and the audience says ‘enough’!
In one of his last moves as a senator, Rex Patrick has advanced his battle against the National Archives to release important documents relating to John Howard and Alexander Downer’s undermining of Timor-Leste in the early 2000s. Callum Foote reports on the latest efforts to end the persecution and secret trials of whistleblower Bernard Collaery.
Timor Spy Saga: Rex Patrick pushes Labor to unveil Australia’s dirty secret, end persecution of Bernard Collaery – Michael West
American influence isn’t as large as one imagines
The overruling of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization has created a sense that those outside the US will somehow draw inspiration from the example of the sacred foetus and the diminished autonomy of its carrier.
Groups such as MSI Reproductive Choices have also drawn a line in the sand of resistance. “To anyone who wants to deny someone’s right to make decisions about what is right for their body and their future, our message is ‘We are not going back’.” Dobbs, in short, may prove on the international stage to be more damp squib than firecracker.
Overruling Roe v Wade: The International Dimension – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Chilling Testimony | The Smirking Chimp
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Chilling Testimony | The Smirking Chimp
Meanwhile LNP Senator Hughes is outspoken in the media and acting as if it were Question Time calling the Australian Teaching Profession Marxists. Sounding like a an American Republican Trumpster she’s attempting to bring full blown “culture wars” to Australian politics. However, all she is doing is demonstrating her’s and the LNP’s ignorance. In her best un- Woke fashion Huges wants the Australian teaching profession cancelled, demonstrating she hasn’t a clue what even the term Woke means when demanding our children need to be taught what’s right rather than develop the skills of learningand assessing what’s right for themselves.
One of the promises the new Prime Minister made during the election campaign was to create or recreate a more civil parliament and, for that matter, a more tolerant and reasoned society. Most would all agree that we want our politicians to put their better minds to the problems confronting us. We want the screaming and disrespect to end.
The difference between manners and civility – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The success of Rupert’s exercise in spraying cologne on a chum bucket is yet to be proven but it is off to a bad start. Leave aside for the moment that Spud, sorry…Cuddles, is a 20 metre swimmer in a 50 metre pool who thinks shit takes are Japanese mushrooms and Feng Shui is a Chinese tennis player – in his first press conference as Lib leader Spuddley Too-right said; “I want to give you this assurance, we’ve heard loud and clear from the [partisanship-weary] Australian public” to be qualified a short time later with “Our job is to make things difficult for the Government“…so, lessons learnt, eh? Back to an obstructionist, Abbottesque future where after only three weeks Cuddles’ troops are laying the blame for nine years of Tory corruption, incompetence and wreckage at Labor’s feet.
Source: Cuddly Pete – » The Australian Independent Media Network
New polling taken directly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned abortion rights that were recognized in Roe v. Wade finds that voters are more likely to back candidates in this year’s midterms who support reestablishing abortion rights through federal legislation.
According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted over the weekend, 56 percent of Americans do not support the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the conservative majority ruled to undo the abortion protections established in Roe. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that they think of themselves as mostly supporting abortion rights, while only 36 percent said that they opposed those types of rights.
Poll: SCOTUS Anti-Abortion Ruling Could Motivate Strong Dem Turnout in Midterms
Will this trend towards progressive governments continue? With elections later this year in Sweden, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Austria, Israel and Slovenia, we shall soon see.
Source: The world is now a much better place, not just Australia
One guy prosecuted for allegedly running a company while bankrupt, ten Crown directors off scot free for washing $70bn through casinos for Chinese Triads, drug and sex traffickers and other assorted criminals. One rule for rich and powerful, another for the rest. Michael West reports on the world of deluxe double standards.
Crown v Shannon: bigwigs off the hook, small fish fried – Michael West
I regret that I’m compelled to write again about the Leader of the Opposition. In what was an interview about the past, he told us everything about the style of leadership we can expect from him. Let’s call it “Liberal Negative” to give it a name.
Dutton, Speers, and that pathetic interview – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Qantas board is offering staff an $87m bribe as it slashes real wages and conditions. As ever, shareholders and Qantas fat cats get the cream, writes Michael Sainsbury.
Rooing the day: Qantas passengers and crew taken for a ride by the board – Michael West
Australia’s media is back-snapped broken — but don’t expect the most concentrated media industry in the world to fix itself, writes founder and publisher Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini.
Why Australian journalists are at war with their audience
Morrison and Frydenberg celebrated “low unemployment” as a sign of their ” management skills” when it’s really proved to be their “failure”. Qualified workers are simply not available why? They cut the funding to Tech colleges and closed the doors to immigration and now have a backlogged waiting list of visa applications. As a result businesses can’t find the right people needed for the jobs. They can’t even get unskilled workers. What’s more Peter Dutton the worst ever Health Minister was then the Immigration Minister leaving the department struggling with the visa applications. Dutton has now claimed the crown of the worst Immigration Minister ever. These LNP assholes saw us slide down the ladder when compared to other nations and they have been consistently doing it for the past decade. Morrison doing nothing but scaming us in front of the lights cameras and in different costmes telling us we are the best.
When governments have access to the best experts, the latest evidence and analysis and the benefits of a fiat currency, and yet these problems persist, it’s hard not to think that politicians think more about themselves than they do about making decisions in the best interests of the country.
Governments are the cause of many of our problems – they could also easily solve them – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australian politics: Partygate and Trump Jan 6 hearings show why Australia must clean up its politics
Australian politics: Partygate and Trump Jan 6 hearings show why Australia must clean up its politics
My thought for the day Sometimes wisdom jumps a generation. Well, we can always hope. ( John Lord )
Source: Only Labor can implement the much-needed change we need – » The Australian Independent Media Network
This week, Congress is putting final touches on the CHIPS Act, which will provide more than $52 billion to companies that design and make semiconductor chips. The subsidy is demanded by the biggest chip makers as a condition for making more chips here.
By not divesting itself of the Big Lie and not embracing the truth of what the January 6 committee is revealing, the Republican Party is losing its last shred of moral authority to function as one of America’s two governing parties.
Source: Why the January 6 Committee Is Failing To Slow Trump’s Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp
If Russia were persecuting a whistleblower like Julian Assange, the US would rightly condemn it as authoritarian abuse. But because that persecution is backed by the US, the mainstream media and American politicians are fine with it.
Source: We Would Never Tolerate Julian Assange’s Persecution If Any Other Country Carried It Out
Contrast this with what Morrison and Frydenberg were telling us, and reality bites the lies told. Now Peter Dutton is here to tell us what good managers they were.
The Independent Australia ranking on economic management (IAREM) for 2022 reveals Switzerland now leads the world and Australia remains outside the top 20, reports Alan Austin.
Australia’s dismal 22nd ranking – behind Portugal, Malaysia, Guatemala and Ecuador – is the nation’s fourth year outside the world’s top 20. This contrasts with being in the top spot under Labor in 2009 and from 2011 to 2013. This decline reflects the long-term effects of hundreds of billions lost offshore in company taxes not collected and billions more lost to corruption and gross mismanagement under the Coalition.
Variables which have deteriorated most severely over recent years in Australia are inflation, economic growth, the tax burden and federal government debt.
Source: IAREM 2022: Switzerland tops economic rankings, Australia out of top 20
The Coalition came to power in 2013 with the promise to wreck things and they didn’t disappoint. Labor had introduced a price on carbon that was working well. It encouraged polluters to reduce emissions, investment in renewable energy, and research and development. It gave money to farmers for carbon abatement. Trade exposed industries were compensated…
Over the last nine years, our relations with other countries soured. Our rankings for human rights, transparency and corruption, and press freedom have all tumbled, as has trust in government and other institutions.
These will all have to be rebuilt.
From the way Peter Dutton has started as leader, it seems the wrecking mentality continues in the federal Coalition. Luckily, the Australian electorate has made them irrelevant.
Source: Builders or wreckers – the contrast is stark – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Prepare to subsidise fossil fuel plants indefinitely. That is the message this morning as, in the wake of Coalition dithering, the new government grooms Australian energy customers for more of the same energy policy. It’s the Richard Wilkins solution. Callum Foote and Michael West report.
Nine years of Coalition dithering on climate and energy have surely taken their toll. Way behind the eight-ball on transition to renewable energy, the new government is now grooming Australians to subsidise multinational fossil fuel corporations to keep their polluting coal and gas power stations running way into the future.
The public grooming comes via Murdoch and Nine media this morning to extend the life of fossil fuel plants and entrench the power of the very same corporations which have just extorted the energy market operator AEMO by threatening to pull supply out of the grid unless richly compensated.
It’s not rising workers’ wages that are causing spiraling inflation — it’s corporate profiteering.
Source: No, Rising Prices Are Not Being Driven by Rising Wages
My thought for the day It is far better to form your own independent opinions relative to your life experience and reason than to allow yourself to be blindly led by others. ( John Lord )
Source: About “Boofhead” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Does anyone understand the national electricity market?
Source: Energy markets give everyone a headache – Michael West
The message for the new government is clear: keep giving big business what it wants – weak merger and competition laws, plus prohibitions on union activity – and the economy will continue performing poorly. Profits will keep growing while household income shrinks.
Source: Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists
The new leader of the wedge and slogan party said the crisis has occurred because the power industry has been “spooked” by the ALP’s plans to promote renewables “too quickly”.
The new leader of the climate change denying party suggested nuclear power was the answer. It is the most expensive form of power. It would take 15 years to build. It is not renewable and it produces toxic waste.
It is obvious where the views of the alternate prime minister and his deputy come from and it isn’t any of the energy regulators, suppliers or academics in the field.
Oh no. If you want to know how to run the country, turn to Sky non-News.
Is the US heading for a recession? Many signs point in that direction. New home construction slowed in April. Mortgage demand continues to decline. Some of the country’s largest and most influential retailers are reporting disappointing sales and profits. The stock market is in bear territory. Futures markets are signaling trouble ahead.
Source: Is the US heading for a recession? Here’s what you need to know | Robert Reich | The Guardian
We aren’t talking big business here but small working-class businesses. It’s always the case that the lobbyists for the top end of town throw cats among the pigeons in order to have Australia’s poor or lower 40% appear to be fighting among themselves so the media have something to amplify. Business has a united front, workers don’t given the LNP has reduced the Unions to a shadow of what they once were this century.
There is no talk of dropping the stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy is there? Only a rise of wages, less than a packet of cigarettes, is what will send “Australia’s Businesses Broke”. A dollar an hour is the tipping point, a cup of coffee a day. Tony Abbott sent the whole fucking Car industry and allied services to the wall and got less of a response from the media. A whole sector of industry simply disappeared. The LNP gave QANTAS a bailout of billions to “keep its workers” and now we see it didn’t. Where did the money go?
Businesses could be “sent to the brink” of collapse by the size of the increase to the minimum wage, according to industry groups.
Source: Businesses warn of closures over wage rise – Michael West
My thought for the day Often life is an experience of random unidentifiable patterns and indiscriminate consequences that don’t always have order nor require explanation. The more we relate to others, the more we get to know ourselves. ( John Lord )
There are three things that Labor should reconsider.
1 they should increase income support payments.
2 they should scrap the stage 3 tax cuts. With inflation on the rise, we certainly don’t need to give rich people more money.
They should revisit the taxation reform Tax concessions on property investment have fuelled the housing crisis – start there.
3 Labor should do a complete review of defense spending. We are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on last century’s weapons of war. Cyber security, robotics, and autonomous systems, communications, international regulatory bodies, foreign aid, trade, and diplomacy will be far more important than accumulating manned tanks and submarines.
Governments,, have to be flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances.
Source: Three things Labor should reconsider – » The Australian Independent Media Network
CITIC the Chinese coal mining juggernaut churns out $8bn in revenue from its suite of Australian coal mines, gets government subsidies, but pays almost no tax and actually faxes in its one financial report to regulators. What’s the scam?
Source: Still Faxing: CITIC the gigantic tiny Chinese coal miner – Michael West
In other words, even if he avoids prosecution, even if he is never formally deemed a criminal under the law, Trump will be accountable to history. That is not as satisfying a form of accountability as a criminal judgment, to be sure. But it is a form of accountability that is inescapable. If the committee does its work properly — and I have every confidence it will — it will create a clear record. Which means that for our children and our children’s children — for as far as future generations will know of our recorded history — Donald Trump will live in infamy.
Source: A Final Thought on the Hearings: How Trump Will Be Held Accountable | The Smirking Chimp
So, what could be Morrison’s motivation for staying on? Perhaps his ego is telling him to be patient for another opportunity. Maybe he believes God’s will is for him to fulfil his destiny. Maybe there is another reason. Maybe it’s for the money (though I’m not suggesting it is).
Source: Why is Scott Morrison remaining in the Parliament? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Albanese has to do what Morrison and Frydenberg didn’t. Have the guts to do and fix that which led us to, and created the crisis we find ourselves in now. Make those that profited from the LNP’s gross generosity pay, and take those steps immediately rather than later….increase their taxes and collect what they haven’t paid.
Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer, Dr Jim Chalmers, have inherited many problems that won’t be solved quickly or easily. Nor will they be solved without the new government being willing to persuade voters to accept the sort of tax changes no pollie wants to talk about in an election campaign.
Source: Treasury boss Steven Kennedy’s cure for debt and deficit
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